Posts by Dr. Boli
ERROR!
You visit one of those Web sites where an ad pops up in front of the text you intended to read, which in itself is annoying enough to make you think twice about visiting the Web site. But what if this is the ad?—
Now what do you do? Do you agree that it is OK that there was an error? That seems to be the only option, since the red X in a circle is not an active link. Nothing but clicking OK will dismiss the white box that blocks the content of the page. But what message is one sending by clicking OK?
Dr. Boli pondered this conundrum for some time. Then he closed the browser tab. Then, just to be certain, he closed the computer.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY.
On this day in 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. (It helped that he had recently become emperor of Austria, so he was not compelled to give up the empering business entirely.) Voltaire famously remarked that “ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire” (“this body that was called, and is still called, the Holy Roman Empire was in no way either holy, or Roman, or an empire”); and because one good wisecrack can set a view of history in concrete, we are generally taught in school that the Holy Roman Empire was a failure through and through. It took a thousand years to unravel, however, and there is something to be said for an institution that can last from the Dark Ages through to Dr. Boli’s own young adulthood. Doubtless it was thoroughly absurd from the beginning to the end of its history; but let us remember the attempt in the twentieth century to re-found the institution on rational principles, and we shall have a higher regard for absurdity.
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MORE GOOGLE CATS.
Once again, as we saw before, Google uses the terrible power of artificial intelligence to identify cats in one’s photo collection.
Let us hope that Google’s algorithms never fall into the hands of America’s enemies.
COMING IN SEPTEMBER.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY.
On this day in 1919, the newly formed German republic adopted the Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs, the Weimar Constitution, placing Germany among the modern parliamentary democracies of the world, and putting an end forever to autocracy and militarism, with one trivial temporary interruption. Happy 100th anniversary, modern Germany!
PITTSBURGH TOPOGRAPHY EXPLAINED IN ONE PICTURE.
This old Polish school is located in a neighborhood called the South Side Flats.
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION.
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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY.
On this day in 1593, Henry IV decided that Paris was worth a Mass. He insisted on drawing the line, however, at “Here I Am, Lord.” “Not for all the empires in the world,” he was heard to grumble as he knelt before the Archbishop.